


The Forgotten Truth

by StarGazer333



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Post-Season/Series 03
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2020-11-02 06:36:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20654924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarGazer333/pseuds/StarGazer333
Summary: El and the Byers return to Hawkins for a week for Thanksgiving. Everything is going great until El starts bumping into fellow test subjects - quite literally.





	1. Where It All Began

####  _July 19th, 1977_

In the depths of Hawkins Lab, Dr. Brenner stood behind a glass pane. Through it he observed a young woman, who sat across from a tall man with glasses. “Give me back my daughter,” he demanded. The young woman looked at Brenner, who nodded as if to say “You know what to do.”

“Your daughter is safe here,” she said, her hazel eyes locked on the man’s blue ones. “You were just about to leave, remember?” The man hesitated before standing up. Two guards opened the door for him as he exited the room, then escorted him to the lab’s front doors. Brenner entered the room and sat across from the young woman.

“You’ve made excellent progress, Four - surprisingly quickly, too.”

“Thank you,” said Four as she wiped the blood from her upper lip with her sleeve.

“Why don’t you rest for the next few hours? You must be tired.”

“I am, but can I practice on Erik for a little bit?”

“Right now you need to rest,” Brenner said firmly. “Off you go.”

Four frowned and left the room, leaving Brenner to wallow in his triumph. He finally had a way to manipulate people’s memories.

*** * * * ***

####  _November 25th, 1986_

For the past year, El and Will could hardly stand living in Newark, Ohio for one simple reason - they were so far away from their friends. And making new ones wasn’t an option. But they were finally on their way to Hawkins again to celebrate Thanksgiving. “Only one more hour,” Joyce said as they passed a “Welcome to Indiana” sign.

“I wonder what they’re doing right now…” Will muttered to El.

“We can find out,” she said with a smirk.

“Are you sure?” Will asked.

El nodded and closed her eyes. She focused inward, and soon found herself in the void. She heard a vaguely familiar voice from behind her. “Why don’t you and Nancy grab some stuff from the store? For dinner on Thursday.” El turned around to face Karen, talking to Mike as she chopped green onions.

“What do we need?” Nancy materialized and approached her mom.

“Here, let me write it down.”

“Can we wait for El and Will to get here?” Mike asked. “They should be here any minute.”

“Alright.” Karen finished writing down what she needed and handed the slip of paper to Nancy. “It’s just a few things I forgot to get yesterday. Oh, and here’s some money for when you go.”

El opened her eyes and saw Joyce looking at her in the rear view mirror. “Whatcha doin’ back there?”

“Just seeing what Mike’s doing,” El said, quickly drying her bloody nose.

“And?” questioned Will.

“He’s going to the store to get things for Thanksgiving dinner,” El said with a shrug. She was relieved that Mike seemed just as eager for them to arrive as they were. She looked forward to spending the following week in Hawkins, her true home.


	2. Nothing's Changed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At the grocery store, El becomes suspicious of someone who seems to know of her upbringing.

####  _July 26th, 1977_

A red-haired girl sat with a teen boy and a pair of identical twins in the small cafeteria within Hawkins Lab. She was subject Six, Francine. “Who’s that?” she asked the boy, eyeing Four, who was serving herself dinner.

“Oh, that’s Beth - Four.”

“What can she do?”

“Don’t know. Something similar to what I can do, I think.”

“She can make you forget things, and remember things that didn’t actually happen,” chimed in one of the twins.

“How do you know?”

“I’ve talked to her a couple times. She’s pretty quiet.”

Francine glanced at Beth every once in awhile as she ate her lukewarm chicken noodle soup. Beth seemed different from all the other subjects in a way Francine struggled to understand. She wasn’t sure she wanted to, though.

*** * * * ***

####  _November 25th, 1986_

The moment Joyce’s car came to a complete stop, Will burst out and ran to the Wheeler’s front door, El following close behind. Mike opened it and they exchanged hugs. “It’s so good to see you guys again…” he said, smiling broadly. “C’mon, everyone’s in the basement.”

Mike led them downstairs, where Max, Lucas and Dustin had been waiting. “Hey!” Max ran up to El and threw her arms around her. “You have no idea how much I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too,” said El. She looked at Mike, Lucas and Dustin. “All of you.”

Nancy and Jonathan appeared in the doorway. “Mike, mom says we have to go to the grocery store now,” Nancy said.

“Okay… Come on guys, let’s spend your first ten minutes back at the grocery story,” Mike said with a frown. The six of them followed Nancy and Jonathan past Joyce and Karen, who were chatting by the front door.

“Thanks again, Nancy,” Karen called.

“No problem, mom.” Once everyone was in Nancy’s car she said, “Trust me, I don’t want to be doing this either, but mom needs her cranberry sauce.”

As Mike, Max, Lucas and Dustin asked El about life in Ohio, Will looked out the window at the town he grew up in. He watched the people going about their day as they drove through downtown. “Nothing’s changed, has it?”

“Not really,” said Lucas. “It’s been pretty boring here.”

“What’s new?” added Max with an eye roll.

“You should see Newark. There’s nothing to do there. At least here there’s a theater, and an arcade.”

“True.”

Nancy parked in front of the grocery store and everyone got out. El remembered when she stole eggos in vivid detail and swallowed, hoping none of the employees would recognize her. Inside, everyone huddled around Nancy, who held Karen’s list. “Let’s split up and meet back here.”

“Aye aye captain,” said Dustin, walking off toward the produce section with Lucas.

After going through seemingly every aisle, Mike exclaimed, “Why is it so hard to find soup?” Max came around the corner holding two cans of cream of mushroom soup.

“Wow, would you look at that. Soup,” she said. Mike glared at her. “You okay, El?”

El kept her head down. “Yeah, it’s just - I’ll tell you later.”

They joined the others by the register. As Nancy paid the cashier - a man with hair that somewhat resembled Steve’s - he made eye-contact with El. His eyes lingered on her for a few seconds before he handed Nancy a receipt and said, “Have a nice day.” But as El passed him he looked at her once more, at her wrist. Keeping her wrist attached to her hip, El hurried outside. On the way back to the Wheeler’s, she couldn’t stop wondering how the cashier seemed to know about her tattoo.

####  _To Be Continued..._


End file.
